Epiphany 5

Epiphany 6 (Mark 1:40-45) “I do choose. Be made clean.”

Jesus could heal with a word. He could heal with a word because he is the incarnation of the co-eternal Word of God, the logos.

The Great Mystery of the One God is the Great Mystery of love. That love manifests in the eternal realm as The one Who loves (the Father), the one who is loved (the Son) and the love itself (the Holy Spirit).

The Apostle John reveals that the Beloved Son of the Father is the Word of the Father. The image is active, dynamic, creative, rational and passionate. It is not as though there was a time when God was silent and then spoke the word. There is no time in the eternal realm of the Divine. There is no before or after. There is only the eternal now.

God the Father eternally speaks the Word, God the beloved Son.

While this may or may not be interesting in and of itself, most people generally want to know what difference does it make. What difference does it make for my life? What practical help can it offer someone who is struggling to make ends meet, someone who is lonely, sad, or fully immersed in the pleasures and the pains of life?
It certainly made a big difference for the leper. No one could cure leprosy. Even the cause eluded scientists until very recently. There is a cure for leprosy now. For most of human history it meant suffering, exile and a lonely death.

Since no one knew the cause of the disease people feared it might be contagious. Lepers were seen as the living dead. They were exiled to caves outside the cities where they struggled to survive one more day before the inevitable. Death.
The Leper took a risk that day when he approached Jesus. By Law he was not permitted to come close to anyone. By law he was supposed to shout out: “unclean” if anyone came too close to him. What drew the leper to Jesus was faith. The leper had heard the stories of Jesus. He heard and he believed.

It wasn’t easy to believe without seeing. Healing leprosy was not probable. But, it was not impossible. The Leper probably remembered the story of the prophet Elisha healing the leper Naaman. Moses actually wrote into the Law a cleansing ritual for those who might be healed of the disease. The cleansing certified that the leper had indeed been healed and could return to his family.

On one occasion one of the prophets healed a leper by the power of God. On every occasion Jesus healed all who came to him. While he was on Earth Jesus spent the greater portion of his three year public ministry healing all manner of illness including leprosy. And, he healed with a word.

Jesus healed with a word because Jesus is that eternal Word God the Father eternally speaks. The Word is the expression of the very nature of God. That nature is love. God just doesn’t have love. Love is not just one of many attributes of God. God is love.

As the incarnation of God’s self-expression, Jesus reveals the meaning of divine love. That love is steadfast. It never alters due to external circumstance. Jesus never said: if you love me then I will love you. Jesus even loved those who betrayed him, falsely accused him, tortured him, and killed him.

Is your love steadfast? Or, is your love dependent on the external circumstances of your life?

Steadfast love comes only from God. We experience such love only as we reunite with God in Christ. In that unity we have the ability to make a choice to bring forth steadfast love.

The Leper was very perceptive. He believed Jesus had the ability and the power to heal. He also knew that the power is love. And, he understood that love is always a choice. So, when the leper breaks the Law governing lepers and approaches Jesus he says: ”if you choose you can make me clean.”

Jesus responds accordingly. “I do choose. Be made clean.” Love is a choice. Jesus always makes the real choice to bring forth love because Jesus is the physical embodiment of Divine Love.

The word of healing is the word of love. The specific word comes from the transcendent eternal Word made flesh in Jesus Christ.

There were many lepers in Israel who did not come to Jesus for healing. There were many sick people in the wider world of Jesus’ time that Jesus never met and never healed. Everyone in our world experiences illness. Sometimes we recover. Sometimes we don’t. Jesus loves them all.

As a particular man in a particular time and place Jesus could not meet everyone. The Holy Spirit universally and without exception invites everyone to choose life and to choose love. We, the church, are the continuation of the incarnation here and now.

Jesus wants us to continue his ministry among the people we encounter. The ministry is the outpouring of divine love and compassion. The ministry is grace.

It is only as we make the real choice to come to Jesus daily in prayer and Bible Study that we open our minds and hearts and wills to be immersed in divine love. It is only as we hear the call to worship and make a real choice to say “yes” to the call to worship that we reform our unique identities according the pattern of the Word.

Jesus is that eternal self- expression of God at work in the world today. He speaks through the Holy Spirit to all people. He speaks to us through the Bible and the sacraments. He wants us to take what we hear and experience and share it with others. He wants us to embody the Word that he speaks into our souls and become the blessing of that Word to the people in our lives.

That sharing can be as simple as a kind word for a harried clerk in a supermarket. It can be helping a child with homework and visiting an elderly person in a nursing home. It can even be giving someone the benefit of the doubt and refusing to repeat gossip. Human need is inexhaustible. Jesus gives us himself to help us meet some of those needs. It is always our choice to draw on that Love and to make that love real in another person’s life.

The infinite and eternal love that Jesus pours into our souls can become a blessing to others. Jesus in us and through us can meet some of those needs we encounter in others. That is the practical outcome of faith. It does make a difference what we believe and in whom we place our trust.

Faith is a choice. Love is a choice. The leper in his suffering and pain, in his isolation and distress, nevertheless made a choice to approach Jesus and ask for Jesus to make a choice to heal him.

We have the same choice to make. It is as we make the choice to place our faith and trust in the co-eternal Son of God that we grow in grace. It is as we grow in grace that we become open channels of grace to our family, friends, neighbors and acquaintances.

Sometimes people ask me: where is God? Where is Jesus? The answer is you. The answer is us. We are the real presence of Jesus in the world today. Our choice to live by grace through faith can release the power of the Word of God for our own transformation. In that transformation we can become the agents of Christ to our generation.

Jesus responded to the man’s need for healing by saying: “ I do choose to heal you. It is my choice and I choose to bring forth the light and life of Divine Love and Compassion. Be healed.” Jesus spoke the word and the word became the reality. The man was healed and rejoiced, giving thanks to God.